Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 12:41 pmPosts: 14118Location: From some place in this area...

Olmert tells cabinet he will quit

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has told the Israeli Cabinet he is going to resign - but he will remain in power until a new government is formed.

He is expected to be replaced by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni who has six weeks to form a fresh coalition government.

Mr Olmert announced he would step down in July after facing growing pressure over multiple corruption inquiries.

He will formally submit his resignation later on Sunday.

Mr Olmert's aides said he would deliver a letter of resignation to President Shimon Peres at 1930 (1630 GMT).

The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says Mr Olmert may remain in office as caretaker prime minister for some time while his successor as leader of the Kadima Party, Ms Livni, tries to form a new government.

He said it will not be easy for her to put together a coalition government because Kadima does not have a majority in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

It is a complicated process that may end in general elections at the start of next year, until when Ehud Olmert may remain as prime minister, our correspondent added.

Corruption investigations

Ms Livni, who is regarded as a moderate, won the leadership of the governing Kadima party on Thursday, beating Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz by just 431 votes, or 1.1%.

According to the president's office, Ms Livni will have up to 42 days to attempt to form a coalition representing at least 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats from Israel's mosaic of political parties.

If she fails, the president may give another member of the Knesset up to 42 days to try to form a government.

If still no government is formed, the president may mandate yet another member to try, or call elections, which must then take place within 90 days.

Mr Olmert said he would resign once a new Kadima party leader had been chosen.

He has faced growing pressure over multiple corruption investigations during his less than three years in office. He denies any wrongdoing in all cases.

Police have recommended he be indicted over two of the probes - allegations that he misused cash payments from a US businessman, and accusations that he double-billed government agencies for trips abroad.

Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 12:41 pmPosts: 14118Location: From some place in this area...

Britain's top policeman resigns

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has announced his resignation, blaming a lack of support from London mayor Boris Johnson.

Sir Ian has faced controversies in the job but said he was not stepping down on 1 December because of any failures.

Mr Johnson said the Met needed "new leadership", but the home secretary said there was "a process in place that the mayor chose not to respect".

Gordon Brown said Sir Ian had made a "huge" contribution to the UK's safety.

The prime minister went on to commend Sir Ian's leadership at the time of the July 2005 suicide bomb attacks on London's transport system.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said added: "I pay tribute to Sir Ian for the massive reductions in crime that his leadership of the Met has overseen and his continuing efforts to tackle gun, gang and knife crime.

"His part in leading neighbourhood policing across London has led to Londoners being safer and more confident."

But she accused Mr Johnson of ignoring protocol regarding the mayor's relationship with the police, adding: "Frankly you should put a bit of time and effort into that before you jump to judgement."

Mr Johnson, who took over as chairman of the police authority on Wednesday, has avoided publicly backing Sir Ian since being elected Conservative Party mayor in May.

Speaking after Sir Ian's resignation, the mayor said: "There comes a time in any organisation when it becomes clear it would benefit from new leadership and clarity of purpose. I believe that time is now."

'No secrets'

Tasked with modernising Britain's biggest police force, Sir Ian's tenure started confidently with reforms including community support officers, neighbourhood police, and a more diverse workforce.

But some senior officers disliked his close relationship with Downing Street when Tony Blair was prime minister and his leadership style.

There were questions about his handling of events surrounding the 2005 death of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot dead at Stockwell Underground station in south London after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.

The Met Police were later convicted of a health and safety offence over the incident.

Sir Ian also was criticised after publicly questioning why the murders of two girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire in 2002, had been such a big story in the media.

It later emerged he had recorded a telephone conversation with the attorney general without asking his permission.

In 2006, in the course of arresting two brothers who were later cleared of any involvement in terrorism, armed Met officers shot and injured one of them.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, married with a child, declined to say Monday whether had an affair with a former aide and paid to keep her quiet, then called for an investigation of his conduct by the House ethics committee.

Mahoney issued his statement hours after ABC News reported on its Web site that he had agreed to pay $121,000 in March to a former mistress and staff member after being threatened with a sexual harassment lawsuit.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also called for an investigation.

He won the seat after former GOP U.S. Rep. Mark Foley resigned after sending lurid online messages to male teenage pages.

Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 12:41 pmPosts: 14118Location: From some place in this area...

Former Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Fumo convicted of fraud, corruption

Former Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent J. Fumo was found guilty of 137 counts of conspiracy, fraud, obstruction of justice and tax violations on Monday.

Fumo, a Democrat who previously represented South Philadelphia, was found guilty of defrauding the Senate, a nonprofit organization and a museum out of more than US$3.5 million.

Fumo also ordered state employees to do political tasks and personal errands, and destroyed e-mail evidence, according to the convictions handed down by a U.S. District Court jury Monday.

More than 100 witnesses participated in the five-month trial, which featured about 1,500 exhibits. It took the jury 13 minutes to read all the guilty counts for Fumo, who served on the Pennsylvania State Senate for more than 30 years.

“Hard work has never, never balanced such abuses," U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid told The Bulletin. "It was a resounding verdict and an emphatic rejection of the kind of defenses that were raised."

Former Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent J. Fumo was found guilty of 137 counts of conspiracy, fraud, obstruction of justice and tax violations on Monday.

Fumo, a Democrat who previously represented South Philadelphia, was found guilty of defrauding the Senate, a nonprofit organization and a museum out of more than US$3.5 million.

Fumo also ordered state employees to do political tasks and personal errands, and destroyed e-mail evidence, according to the convictions handed down by a U.S. District Court jury Monday.

More than 100 witnesses participated in the five-month trial, which featured about 1,500 exhibits. It took the jury 13 minutes to read all the guilty counts for Fumo, who served on the Pennsylvania State Senate for more than 30 years.

“Hard work has never, never balanced such abuses," U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid told The Bulletin. "It was a resounding verdict and an emphatic rejection of the kind of defenses that were raised."

"I had to go and calm her down when she found her property littered with dog refuse, dead squirrels, cats, mice and even a skunk deliberately left behind to frighten her," said Maria Bolotta, daughter of Carmela Canino an 87 year old widow. Canino shared a semi-detached house with Scala.

"It became impossible for me to spend quality time with her or to enjoy her property with her because of the horrible skeletons, fake camera, pitchforks, and tombs bearing her name that we had to face when we went outside." continued Bolotta.

Bolotta recounted finding 22 sharpened bicycle spokes jabbed into the lawn while she was out with the lawn mower.

Justice Kathleen Caldwell's sentencing of Scala was followed by a three year probation, counseling, and 200 hours of community service. Additionally he must pay the neighbourhood victims restitution and stay away from the neighbourhood and its residents.

His father, Felice Scala aged 62, faces four charges related to his son's crimes and will appear in court in June.

Oh, this is cool...seems the shysters have just figured a new scam....bid high, and offload 3/4 of the risk onto the taxpayers for their overbids on the junk. Result... collect double for your junk.

It also explains the recent uptick in the notoriously shakey banking stocks..

Dig deep fellow taxpayers, they found a new way...

The article's short but sweet...

How the Scam Works

by, Michael Hudson

Newspaper reports seem surprised at how high banks are bidding for the junk *SPAM* that Treasury Secretary Geithner is now bidding for, having mobilized the FDIC and Fed to transfer yet more public funds to the banks. Bank stocks are soaring – thereby bidding up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as if the “financial industry” really were part of the industrial economy.

Why are the very worst offenders – Bank of America (now owner of the Countrywide crooks) and Citibank the largest buyers? As the worst abusers and packagers of CDOs, shouldn’t they be in the best position to see how worthless their junk *SPAM* are?

That turns out to be the key! Obviously, the government has failed to protect itself – deliberately, intentionally failed to do so – in order to let the banks pull off the following scam.

Suppose a bank is sitting on a $10 million package of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that was put together by, say, Countrywide out of junk *SPAM*. Given the high proportion of fraud (and a recent Fitch study found that every package it examined was rife with financial fraud), this package may be worth at most only $2 million as defaults loom on Alt-A “liars’ loan” *SPAM* and subprime *SPAM* where the *SPAM* brokers also have lied in filling out the forms for hapless borrowers or witting operators taking out *SPAM* at far more than properties were worth and pocketing the excess.

The bank now offers $3 million to buy back this *SPAM*. What the hell, the more they bid, the more they get from the government. [re: "our kids" -baddy's note] So why not bid $5 million. (In practice, friendly banks may bid for each other’s junk CDOs.) The government – that is, the hapless FDIC – puts up 85 per cent of $5 million to buy this – namely, $4,250,000. The bank only needs to put up 15 per cent – namely, $750,000.

Here’s the rip-off as I see it. For an outlay of $750,000, the bank rids its books of a *SPAM* worth $2 million, for which it receives $4,250,000. It gets twice as much as the junk is worth. [baddy's note: thanks janie and johnny...and kids, thank the man].

The more the banks holding junk *SPAM* pay for this toxic waste, the more the government will pay as part of its 85 per cent. So the strategy is to overpay, overpay, and overpay. Paying 15 per cent is a small price to pay for getting the government to put in 85 per cent to take the most toxic waste off your books.

The free market at work, financial style._________

Michael Hudson is a former Wall Street economist. A Distinguished Research Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), he is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (new ed., Pluto Press, 2002) He can be reached at mh@michael-hudson.com "

END ARTICLE_____________________________

[baddy's note: in the late 90's we had $4 trillon in real estate, by 2005 it was $11 trillion in real estate. Most of the difference is bubble, fake wealth. Now the banks who made the most fake money during the bubble gotta have the taxpayers and their kids promise to make good for it....and in the article above, the shysters have even found a way to pyramid that.Good fucken government we have, actually shoveling the money to the shysters. Lesser fucken evil strikes again.Thanks Ronny, I'm glad you're happy with Obama's economic progress so far, thank the man] .

BRASILIA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Brazilian police arrested on Thursday a key opposition party district governor on bribery charges, potentially hurting the right wing's chances in the general election this year.

Jose Roberto Arruda, governor of the federal district of the capital Brasilia, is accused of taking kickbacks from companies seeking public works contracts.

The scandal, widely publicized since it broke in November, could taint the image of Arruda's right-wing Democratas party (DEM) before the Oct. 3 general election. DEM is the leading ally of the leading presidential hopeful, Sao Paulo state Governor Jose Serra of the centrist PSDB party.

Arruda turned himself over to police in Brasilia after the Supreme Court voted 12-2 in favor of his arrest. It said he had attempted to obstruct investigations by trying to bribe a witness. The public prosector charged him with attempted bribery and racketeering. He denies the charges.

Prosecutors said they would request an interim administrator for the district because Arruda's deputies were cited in the alleged kickbacks.

In November, video footage leaked of Arruda accepting large amounts of money during his 2006 election campaign. He said the money was used to distribute sweet bread and toys to poor children in Brasilia.

Other politicians were seen stuffing wads of cash into their pockets and socks. One group was shown praying with an Arruda aide and thanking God for the cash they had received.

The opposition had planned to remind voters this year of a 2005 campaign financing scandal involving President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party, or PT. Now, analysts say, it will be difficult for DEM to take the moral high ground.

Lula, who by law cannot run for a third consecutive term, has chosen his chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, as the PT's presidential candidate. She trails Serra by around five percentage points.

An aide to Rep. Vance McAllister, R-La., says the congressman will ask the FBI to investigate the leak of a video showing the lawmaker kissing an aide.

The News Star in Monroe, a daily newspaper in the congressman’s district, says McAllister will make the investigation request Wednesday by sending a letter to House Speaker John Boehner.

McAllister, who promoted traditional Christian values throughout his campaign, has not voted on the House floor this week after the video given to The Ouchita Citizen was posted Monday. The video shows McAllister passionately kissing Melissa Peacock, who has been removed from the congressman’s payroll.

The congressman has apologized to his wife and five children, and he seeks forgiveness from his family and constituents.

“Clearly, what the congressman did was wrong, and he’s taking responsibility for his actions,” McAllister Chief of Staff Adam Terry told the Monroe paper. “However, a breach in security in a federal office is a grave concern for us.”

Why is this news worthy, clinton got his blow jobs, JFK, with Marilyn, why not focus on the corruption in the white house and the government taking over our lives.

People are fascinated by that shit. Hell, a woman who was basically Kennedy's jizz bucket wrote a book about it.

It might also have something to do with the fact that McAllister ran on a "Faith, Family, Hard Work" ticket, in which he promised to "support traditional marriage".

"Throughout last fall’s congressional campaign, McAllister, a Republican from Swartz, touted his Christian faith and in one television commercial, he asked voters to pray for him. At least two other campaign television commercials featured McAllister walking hand in hand with his wife, Kelly, while their five children walked along. One television commercial captured the McAllister family in the kitchen of their home preparing breakfast before attending church."http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/ ... affer.html

Instrumentalize your family for political purposes and you become fair game, IMO.

_________________"I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly."

Why is this news worthy, clinton got his blow jobs, JFK, with Marilyn, why not focus on the corruption in the white house and the government taking over our lives.

People are fascinated by that shit. Hell, a woman who was basically Kennedy's jizz bucket wrote a book about it.

It might also have something to do with the fact that McAllister ran on a "Faith, Family, Hard Work" ticket, in which he promised to "support traditional marriage".

"Throughout last fall’s congressional campaign, McAllister, a Republican from Swartz, touted his Christian faith and in one television commercial, he asked voters to pray for him. At least two other campaign television commercials featured McAllister walking hand in hand with his wife, Kelly, while their five children walked along. One television commercial captured the McAllister family in the kitchen of their home preparing breakfast before attending church."http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/ ... affer.html

Instrumentalize your family for political purposes and you become fair game, IMO.

First of all traditional indicates man and woman, nothing to do with an affair or kissing, I find all this interest low importance again god fearing b Clinton got blow jobs and scrogged a gal, so where is the outrage? This soap opera interest is amusing to some one who lives in germany and has no vote but the focus for voters in the USA should be on the run away judicial system ,out of control IRS, and the ever increasing national DEBT. That the present admin says is not a problem.

_________________A government Bureau is the closest thing to eternal life on earth that you will ever see

Hey BRAVO, I may live in Germany, but I like to learn stuff - I'll say it again; I've learned a lot from you and I respect your POV, even if I don't always agree. Can I give my opinion anyway? Feel free to discard it as a foreigner talking crap, if you like... Of course, you're right about Clinton's blow jobs outside of marriage. He also lied about the fact that he'd had a blow job outside of marriage.On the hand (as far as I know), Clinton didn't make it a central part of his political programme that other people shouldn't go around and have blow jobs outside of marriage and that people who don't have blow jobs outside of marriage are somehow more suitable for political office.The words "hypocrisy" or "holier than thou" do tend to spring to mind - at least from a European perspective.

_________________"I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly."

Why is it that whenever somebody points out lying, cheating, crooked and rotten behavior of Conservative and Republican politicians and activists, the Conservative and/or Republican response is always to point out that somebody else from the other side of the spectrum did it so it's not a big deal, but if Liberals and Democrats get caught, then it's suddenly a big deal? The hypocrisy and extremism is astonishing.

Why is it that whenever somebody points out lying, cheating, crooked and rotten behavior of Liberal and Democratic politicians and activists, the Liberal and/or Democratic response is always to point out that somebody else from the other side of the spectrum did it so it's not a big deal, but if Conservatives and Republicans get caught, then it's suddenly a big deal? The hypocrisy and extremism is astonishing.

...I find all this interest low importance again god fearing b Clinton got blow jobs and scrogged a gal, so where is the outrage?This soap opera interest is amusing to some one who lives in germany...

Well, you sure do appear to be interested, even if your responses continue to be off topic.

I can tell you where the Clinton outrage is: It's in the '90s.McAllister is the latest self-made target for 2014. I think it's time for you to move on.

The point is cheating on the wife is deplorable but in comparison to the more important issues that I listed it is small. In addition cheating on your wife as a sitting president and LYING about it; well,..... might get you impeached, just sayin. So fine ,if you think the guy cheating on his wife, even though he said he was a moral sob, then great, I think there are many more critical issues to get pissed about.

_________________A government Bureau is the closest thing to eternal life on earth that you will ever see

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